The Golden Gate Restaurant Association today applauded a federal judge’s ruling that keeps intact San Francisco’s ground-breaking universal health care program but strikes down an illegal funding provision that would have crippled local employers and hurt the City’s economy.
The ruling is the right ruling, but we are disappointed that so much time, energy and taxpayer money has gone into a fight that easily could have been avoided and hasn’t gotten us any closer to providing all San Franciscans with health care they deserve,” GGRA Executive Director Kevin Westlye said. “We call on the Board of Supervisors and the Mayor not to waste taxpayer dollars on an expensive appeal and instead work with us to create a legal, sustainable funding solution to pay for universal health care.”
Westlye said the GGRA has always supported health care for all and has proposed a ¼ cent sales tax to help pay for it.
“San Francisco can unite around universal health care. The sales tax is a viable funding option and we call on City Hall to put it on the next available ballot,” Westlye said. “We have passed a special sales tax for transportation and one for schools, certainly health care will be a priority for the city, as well.”
The judge’s ruling came in response to a lawsuit the GGRA filed in November 2006 in U.S. District Court. The lawsuit did not seek to overturn San Francisco’s Health Care Security Ordinance, only one provision of the ordinance that GGRA argued clearly violated the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). The provision imposed an employer funding mandate. ERISA makes it illegal for state and local governments to impose requirements on employers’ health benefit programs.
“The problems with our health care system are very serious and they are a national problem,” Westlye said. “We are proud of San Francisco’s leadership in grappling with this problem at a local level. But the fact remains that illegally pushing the crushing cost of health care onto the backs of the small businesses who are working to create jobs in this City and whose income helps pay for vital city services is not the answer.”
Westlye said the decision by Judge Jeffrey White of the Northern District is consistent with recent federal court rulings that rejected similar state and local government attempts in Maryland and New York to bypass ERISA and create illegal employer mandates. The Maryland case was decided after an appeal.
The GGRA had hoped to avoid taking its complaint to the courts. The industry association spent more than a year attempting to negotiate an alternative to the employer funding mandate. Both city elected officials and labor leaders have rebuffed GGRA’s repeated efforts to look at several other funding options, including a quarter cent sales tax